I had the stomach flu yesterday and just didn't trust my stomach or my nose today. But I just KNEW that the package of chicken that I opened did not smell right when I opened it today. It was had an overwhelming funky smell, not just a slightly bad smell. I took it down the street to my neighbor and asked her if she would please smell my chicken. She was happy to (like I ask her to smell poultry all of the time) and confirmed that I was correct in my chicken assessment- it was BAD. She asked me a few home ec type questions like "when did you buy it?" "when is the sell by date?" and "where did you store it?". Upon answering "2 days ago", "4 days from now" and "fridge" She told me to take it back! I was happy to hear that Kroger did NOT want my rotten chicken back but were happy upon seeing my receipt to give me a good smelling bird. Supper is saved!

I can plan a month's worth of meals, do six loads of laundry, and read a very long book about vegetable gardens twice to my four year without much effort. I can go to three grocery stores in one morning and get all of the best deals on food, tolietries and paper products.

But the real question was could I get myself and my four year old from near O'Hare Airport to various sites in Chicago, in one afternoon, on different public transporation systems.

Well, the answer to that question is a little tricky. If we concentrated on the "various" part of that question, the answer would be "no". We really only made it one. Well, two really but the second one was an after thought and right across the street from the first. Is the question "did we get lost?" Then the answer is no (but Jonah will tell you that we did). If the question is-did we take all of the right trains and buses? Then the answer is "no" (but the lady that works at the train station told us incorrectly). Is the question- did we have to walk a LONG time from where we got off the bus to the Lincoln Park Zoo? Then the answer is YES! But again, we were only following directions. Did we ask LOTS of people throughout our trip on how to find the zoo AND how to take the CORRECT bus/trains home? YES! But, if you're asking if we made it to our tourist spot of choice and had lots of fun, then the answer is "yes"!!!

My urban experience began with us tagging along with Jake while he had a trade show up north. We swam while he set up and then we went out to dinner with some of his co-workers. Yesterday he went to the show and Jonah and I took a shuttle to the train station.

I will say that I was a little unprepared for this trip. I had looked up the train lines ahead of time and had an idea of where we might go. But I thought I would finalize plans while we were relaxing at the hotel. But then we didn't have wifi and I couldn't find a good map. Although I was ready to scrap the whole idea I asked Jonah if he would like to go to either the zoo or the children's museum. He very much wanted to go to the zoo so we decided to give it a try. I thought that surely we make it to ONE spot and back. So with lots of help from kind Chicago citizens (one even called Chicago transit for me to find out the correct bus numbers incase I did want to go to Navy Pier after the zoo-no way, but it was nice of her anyway)we made it to the Lincoln Park Zoo and had a wonderful time. We saw two polar bears, a pygmie hippo and lots of other animals.

We then walked across the street to the Nature Museum because that is where the RIGHT bus stop was located, instead of a mile down the street(three nice park district employees directed me there). It was very much like a Children's Museum and much easier than trying to get to the one at Navy Pier. We saw lots of butterflies, traced a bear skull, and climbed around a pretend tree house. We then made it back to the train station to meet Jake without any trouble, although there was almost trouble because Jonah REALLY had to go potty...